Video as Community Builder
Via Nancy White, comes this massive response from hundreds of people to the question, "What Is Online Community to You?" It's interesting how the video itself is so representative of online community as a whole.
- Some responses are thoughtful and serious while others are outrageous and spirited.
- There are a wide range of ages, races and nationalities represented here, although it seems like it skewed toward the younger crowd. This might be because the video was created in response to a call for collaborative videos that was put out on YouTube, which seems to skew younger anyway.
- Lots of creativity, including signs, movement, music, masks (!), claymation, etc.
- Although expressed in different ways, a number of people shared the same reactions--that sense of community that comes from seeing someone who sees the world as you do.
I also think this is interesting as a project. The organizer, Blade376, invited people to send in their video responses to his question. He ended up weeding through and editing over 400 videos to come up with the final cut. That's massive and certainly not a job I'd want to take on, but on a smaller scale, this could be an interesting learning experience.
What about having people send videos of how they handle a particular problem that could then be put together into a kind of instructional piece? Or you could ask for video responses to questions related to an organization or occupation and edit them to create a montage of reactions and ideas.
This could be an interesting teambuilding project, particularly as part of working on a virtual team--have people send video introductions and then put them together to create a video collage of the team. For new hire orientations, I could see creating a video that's made up of people from the company/organization greeting the new hire or talking about their first day on the job.
Lots of fun things to do with this idea, using the power of video community.
I love the idea with new hires (putting names to faces and environment). I wonder how time consuming/difficult it would be to personalize a video. I can't see there being a new video for each new hire. However, what about putting something together like the video periodic table (e.g. a video organizational chart)?
(Note, I can't wait for one of my kids to take chemistry to see if these videos help them to remember and understand the periodic table better).
Posted by: Virginia Yonkers | August 05, 2008 at 10:07 AM
Virginia--I really like the idea of a Video org chart--that's fabulous!
Posted by: Michele Martin | August 05, 2008 at 10:13 AM
Thank you Michelle -- I too love this way of thinking, rather than prepare another document that sits on a server or shelf somewhere, waiting to be read, why not develop some interesting video clips? I find I am increasingly using YouTube clips that are relevant to a presentation or training just to offer a different way to learn - how great it would be to be intentional in the creation of some of these.
I can imagine some really interesting clips around ethical dilemmas, how-to technical assistance guides like these and informational clips, video FAQs. That periodic table is awesome, grand idea for an org chart! Isn't it interesting how small shifts in our thinking to use new media can create such incredible new opportunities?
Posted by: LaDonna Coy | August 05, 2008 at 01:32 PM
LaDonna,
I use youtube and other video clips in my classroom extensively. Last semester I used them for a course on group communication, watching TV shows (the apprentice was great for demonstrating some of the behaviors students would read about), sports games, and even some "meetings" on line.
I also use speeches in my Speech class so students begin to analyze how others speak and the impact the internet is having on broadcasting presentations.
I found there to be a real shortage of "ethical dilemmas" online (no doubt because of the fear that it might affect a company's image). The closest I have come is to have students point out what is missing in a speech, for example, depending on the audience and a discussion of the ethics of "spin". If you or anyone else is aware of some clips that could be used for "workplace dilemmas" I would be interested.
BTW: My 12 year old was fascinated with the video periodic chart and actually sat down to watch some of them today when I was creating the link for this comment. And this is during her vacation!
Posted by: Virginia Yonkers | August 05, 2008 at 03:04 PM
Michelle,
Great post with some very innovative ideas on how to use YouTube video clips to aid in learning, organizing, building community, etc. Interestingly enough, Brent Schlenker posted Michael Wesch's most recent effort focusing on an Anthropological study of YouTube. You can use this link to get to Brent's blog: http://tinyurl.com/59emy7 The video is about 55 minutes, but if you are familiar with Michael's previous work, you will see that it is well worth the time!
John Zurovchak
Posted by: John Zurovchak | August 05, 2008 at 04:43 PM
Ha! I should have watched the entire video sooner....We've all been RickRolled! This is the first time I've been RickRolled on YouTube! That is probably the most creative RickRoll I have seen to date using snippets from all the different submissions. If you are not familiar with RickRolling, check out this link to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_rolling
Glad to be a member of the club...now I don't feel so left out.
John Zurovchak
Posted by: John Zurovchak | August 05, 2008 at 05:01 PM
LaDonna and Virginia--I completely agree on using video clips to illustrate/elaborate on "how-tos," etc. I'd love to see people get in the habit of not only using existing clips, but creating more themselves (I'm saying this to myself, too). I think it's part of thinking in more visual terms, which is necessary to get across increasingly complex information.
And John--I wondered if anyone would get the Rick Roll. I'd never heard of it before, but then it seemed so perfect as part of this too because so much of online community is about responding to memes and how awesome to have the video be another meme on TWO levels. I love how the Internet has created this larger culture that cuts across our more traditional ideas of culture.
Posted by: Michele Martin | August 06, 2008 at 06:50 AM
Michele, I would love to create more video for use in my classes. However, working in a university, I have to consider the Federal Privacy laws (FERPA) that restrict what I can make public. It was determined this year that we could not keep wikis from previous semesters because of FERPA.
One thing that I have done in the past is had students do a speech and video tape it. They then do a self evaluation. If I could figure out a way for others to then comment on the speech, while maintaining privacy (it would have to be password protected), I could see this as invaluable.
One possibility is to give students extra credit for posting it publicly and soliciting feedback.
Posted by: Virginia Yonkers | August 07, 2008 at 08:07 AM
Virginia, I find it incredibly ironic that FERPA is being used this way when you consider all of the ways that the federal government is working to strip us of any privacy expectations in our lives as citizens. I did think that under FERPA if people gave written permission, you could make information public. If this is the case, couldn't your students sign a release?
And how does saving a wiki from one semester to the next violate FERPA? I would think that if students didn't sign a release, then having it public for even one semester would be a problem. Alternatively, if they've signed the release, then FERPA would be satisfied. What am I missing here?
Posted by: Michele Martin | August 07, 2008 at 08:15 AM